Can Leaders learn from Teabags!

A real tea quality comes only when the teabag is dipped in hot water! Similarly a true quality of a leader can be seen in a challenging situation like hot water.

Whether the tea bag is in the top, middle or bottom, quality does not differ. True leaders perform well no matter where they are in the organisation layer.

Tea quality degrades if the Tea bag stays in the cup beyond the needs. Great leaders do not hold on and know when to leave a legacy for the next generation to perform.

This is from a book “The secret of leadership” by Prakash Iyer. Prakash comes from the corporate world and this his second book after the successful first book "Habit of winning ". 
Prakash has the ability to connect stories from cricket to olympics, giraffe to tea bag and make it interesting to change mindset, attitude, habits.

Some of the memorable insights from the book are:

• Good is the enemy of Great.
• Bronze medalist are happier than Silver medalist in their achievement!
• FEAR is False Expectations Appearing Real!

if you want to connect with yourself and team through inspiring stories then this book can help you.

Coaching for Performance

I was researching on How Sports Excellence can be applied to Corporate Excellence? In the process, found two experts in the field Timothy Gallwey and John Whitmore.

Seven takeaways from reading their works:

1. Performance = Potential - Interference (How to minimize the interference to realize the potential?)
2. Focus on future possibilities and not past mistakes
3. Awareness leads to Responsibility (Can Control: What we are aware? and Controlled by: What we are unaware)
4. Learning - Enjoyment - Performance are Integral (Performance does not  happen without learning and enjoyment)
5. Knowledge - Experience - Attitude of mind are the key ingredients for performance
6. Performance Goal(fully under control), End Goal and Dream goal. Three levels of goal can make the performance experience a realistic journey.
7. GROW model for execution - Goal, Reality, Options/Obstacles,Way forward/Will

Innovation - Ten Thinkers

My new interest is to coach "Innovation as a Practice!"

Based on my understanding of this space, following are the ten Thinkers on Innovation:

1. Peter Drucker (Innovation as a Discipline)
2. Clayton Christensen (Disruptive Innovation)
3. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne (Value Innovation/Blue Ocean Strategy)
4. Hal Gregersen & Jeffrey Dyer (Innovation Skills)
5. Henry Chesbrough (Open Innovation)
6. Scott Anthony (Innovation Methodology)
7. Mark Johnson (Business Model Innovation)
8. Vijay Govindarajan & Chris Trimble (Reverse Innovation)
9. Michael Hammer (Operational Innovation)
10. Rita McGrath (Innovation Risk Management)

Book Review: Great by Choice

I am a fan of Jim Collins, with his books like “Built to Last”, “Good to Great”. 
I read his new book,“Great by Choice”. “Great by Choice” is an apt book in the current Uncertain times with Chaos. 
Collins - beliefs this kind of turbulent times are going to be the new normal in this world. 
“Great by Choice” is not only applicable to corporates it could be applied to individual life too. 
Collins calls “Great by Choice” companies as 10Xers. 10Xers produce ten times better results than the average.
IT industry is known for jargons. But, it can not compete with Jim Collins! 
So, what are the attributes of 10Xers?

• 20 Mile March – called as fanatic discipline. As the saying goes - "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit" Human/Corporate tendency is to over do in good times and under do in bad times. 20 Mile March stresses consistency for great performance. Not zero miles one day and 50 miles another day!
• Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs – called as empirical creativity. Try few things (fire bullets) and one which works scale it to big (then cannonballs). Untested Big Bang can backfire and also, not taking advantage of what worked leads to mediocrity. 
• Leading above the death line – called as Productive Paranoia. As the saying goes – “when the whole world sinks our ship will be the last to sink” It is the awareness of the calamity at an early stage and better prepared. If fear of failure is productively channelized then it can lead to better preparation. 

In a nutshell, smartest does not make it great! It is smart enough with consistency is “Great by Choice” 
And there are more jargons – SMaC recipe, Zoom Out Then Zoom In, Return on Luck etc. Read “Great by Choice”

Top Ten Global Tech Companies

Book Review - Geek Nation

With my interest to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education for the Next Generation, a new book titled "Geek Nation" caught my attention.
The author Angela Saini is a British Science Journalist born to Indian parents. Saini writing have been published in Wired, New Scientist etc.

This book is more a Science travelogue of India (Geek Nation).
Saini visits:
i) Space Science - ISRO, Trivandrum and explores how the Communication Satellites laid the foundation for India's Communication revolution.
ii) Genetic Science - National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow and explores how Banana (India is the largest producer) shelf life extending research could reduce the wastage.
iii) Information Science - Infosys, Bangalore and meets Narayana Murthy. Saini calls Narayana Murthy as Geek God. And also, explores how Speaking Web research done in IBM India could help India, which has lower literacy.
iv) Nuclear Science - Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Trombay and explores how researchers are experimenting Thorium as an alternate to Uranium. This could help to reduce the external dependency of Uranium.

She also visits and explores - Ancient Science, Medicinal Science and more.

Overall it is a good read to know the past Applied Science of India, with a current touch and with an eye on the future.

In a Nutshell - Google IO 2011

Annual Developer events are a good place to spot the IT trends. In the past, I use to follow - Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP. Now, I follow more - Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon annual developer events.
In this context, I was monitoring the Google IO (IO means Innovation in the Open) - 4th Annual developer conference.
Google Search was a closed technology. Now, with Android, Chrome, Google App Engine and with varied Google APIes - it has more open things for developers to play.

These are the two big things from my perspective:
1. Home Automation Through Android - In just 2-3 years Android based (mobile, tablet) devices have reached 100 Million. Now, Google is launching Android Open Accessory development kit, Android@Home framework. If these gets matured & standardized then it would create another big area.
2. A Second Alternate to MS Windows PC/Notebooks – App iMac/ MacBook is the first alternate. Now, ChromeBook could become the second alternate. Google Tool Bar success lead to Google Chrome Browser. Now, with 160 Million Chrome Browser, Google Chrome Browser is moving to Google Chrome OS as ChromeBook.

Android success is driven through Android Market apps ecosystem and Google Internet Services ( Search, Maps, Mail etc.).
Similarly, Chrome OS success is going to be driven through Chrome Web Store apps ecosystem and Google Internet Services (Google App Engine, Google Apps etc. and with offline access to Mail, Calendar)

With this - Google has filled the Client Devices (Mobile, Tablet, Notebook) to Power their Internet services.